Is this the Blackberry we’ve been waiting for?

Image credit: http://www.androidcentral.com/

Blackberry phones were the king of all smartphones before the arrival of the kingslayers – Apple iPhone and Android-powered phones. Even though Blackberry eventually embraced the Android Operating System coming out with the Blackberry Priv, they were already years too late. The Priv was not well received although it did tempt me a little to get it at first. It was too big and chunky – that’s what she said. Haha! Then they came out with DTEK50 but well, it too died a miserable death.

So what’s next?

Introducing the Blackberry ‘Mercury’

Blackberry’s next phone slated to be called ‘Mercury’ appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month. This time, they are bringing you back to the classic form factor – candybar – along with their world renowned physical QWERTY keyboard.

Reviewers were not able to talk much about the specifications at CES because the phone is still in pre-production. This means that the specifications are not firmed up yet.

From what we know, the keyboard (similar to Priv) allows you to swipe up, down, left and right to scroll through the content on your screen. One additional feature that the phone has this time around is the fingerprint sensor embedded in the Space button of the keyboard.

The ‘Mercury’ has a front and back camera, and it also has a button at the side that allows you to set a shortcut to an application of your choice. The phone will be running on Android 7.0 – Nougat – with a different feel to it probably because of Blackberry’s very own OS 10.

This is all we have for now but as per what CNET had reported, the phone could be out in the market at the end of February this year. The price is still unknown but basing it on previous models, I say it could be around SGD600 with a two-year contract.

Oh! By the way, it has a headphone jack. It’s a rare feature to have moving forward but this COULD be its best selling point yet.